This study uses a series of panel models to explore the effect of North Carolina (NC) College Application Week (CAW) and free college applications during that week on the number of applications colleges receive and number of low-income students who matriculate. Our models suggest that NC saw an increase in applications and low-income student…

North Carolina has become the first state to require all students to prove their residency status through a thirdparty process when applying for college and financial assistance. NC Residency Determination Service (RDS) has taken the responsibilities from individual institutions to determine whether a student's residency status is in state or out…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created and will continue to create uncertainty in all facets of everyday life, exacerbating current challenges -- and generating new ones -- for every sector of the economy, including postsecondary education. As the pandemic continues, postsecondary education faces increasing pressures as concerns about health and…

This update to "SAT Wars" provides new evidence in the case against standardized college entry tests, including the experiences of test-optional colleges. "The Scandal of Standardized Tests" sheds significant light on key problems such as: (1) Are the tests stronger proxies for race and family income today than they were 20…

In April 2000 the state of North Carolina announced an increase in the minimum number of math courses students would need to take to be considered for admission as undergraduates to any of the University of North Carolina's 15 four-year branch campuses. Previously, students had been required to take at least three math courses in high school to be…

Although many programs remotely disseminate information to students about the college application process, there is little evidence as to how students experience these programs. This paper examines a large-scale remote counseling program in which college counselors initiated interactions with 15,000 high school seniors via text message to support…

The goal of equal educational opportunity remains unrealized at most of America's colleges. The children of wealth and privilege fill nearly all the seats at these institutions, while the children of poverty are almost completely absent. Far too often, a young person's educational path is determined not by intellect, but by parental income. That a…

There is broad consensus that our nation must increase the number of low-income and first-generation students who enroll in and complete college, yet many academically capable low-income students enroll in nonselective four-year and two-year colleges where graduation rates are low and where they are less likely to succeed; others fail to enroll at…

To understand the potential public health and social justice implications of criminal background screening on college admissions, we examined postsecondary institutions' reasons for collecting or not collecting applicants' criminal justice information. We invited heads of admissions from 300 randomly sampled postsecondary institutions to complete…

While studies of predictive factors for success in honors have been increasingly creative and expansive on what these factors might include, they have rarely challenged the dominant, virtually monolithic definitions of success. The majority of studies measure success either by collegiate grade point averages (GPAs) or retention rates in honors,…

Today a college degree is considered the ticket to a good job and the gateway to economic advancement. A student's chances of gaining admission to college, however, are often based more on parental wealth than the student's achievements. At the nation's most selective colleges, three percent of incoming freshmen come from families in the bottom…

The University of North Carolina System (UNC) annually reports statistics related to characteristics of freshmen classes from each high school and district in the state. Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) graduates were more successful at gaining admission and making academic progress at the member institutions of the UNC system than was…

In this study, the authors examined the impact of two interventions related to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on postsecondary outcomes of low- to moderate-income individuals. The two interventions were included: (1) providing an estimate of need-based aid compared against tuition costs for nearby colleges and assistance in…

People tend to assume that the motivations for their behavior--whether choosing a school, buying a car or pursuing a particular career--are readily available to them, waiting to be articulated. But a great deal of new multi-disciplinary research--in psychology, cognition, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology--is suggesting otherwise. In…

The purpose of this ex post facto investigation was to determine the characteristics of and need for developmental education in the college applicant pool in 2006. Demographic data and COMPASS placement test results were gathered for the 1,079 applicants in 2006 who had complete records. These data were considered in the aggregate and in subsets…